Although Japan has imposed economic sanctions on Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, the relationship between the two countries in terms of fisheries is far from broken.
According to the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, relations with the Russians are essential for the Japanese fishing industry, if only to catch trout and salmon in the waters around Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands.
In fact, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that fishing rights belong to the country where the source of the river in which the fish reproduces, namely the Amur, is located.
As part of a bilateral fishing agreement, Tokyo and Moscow have therefore been in regular contact to negotiate quotas, fishing periods and acquisition of rights, and this since the time of the Soviet Union. “These talks have j